MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, Helen Hayes, has said the general election result nation-wide was a vote against a hard Brexit.
Helen, who was first elected as MP in 2015 having been a Southwark councillor, almost doubled her majority and claimed 39,093 votes overall.
Speaking to the News on Tuesday, Helen said: “I was really delighted by the result… We ran a very positive campaign.
“If you look at the history of the borough it has been subject to national trends. This was always going to be an extremely difficult result to predict. You don’t take anything for granted.”
Looking to the year ahead, she said: “There will have to be some changes to the direction the government is taking in relation to Brexit…
“I think Brexit was always central to this election. I think the result across the country represents a clear message to the prime minister that the approach she was taking [of a hard Brexit] doesn’t have a strong endorsement.”
Helen also welcomed suggestions that Labour and the Conservatives could work together when it comes to forming a strategy on the forthcoming Brexit negotiations.
“I think there is absolutely a need for long-term working between the parties on Brexit,” she said. “What’s important to me, as a member of parliament for an area that voted heavily for remain, is that there will be room for those views in the debate, and that it’s not all Eurosceptic dogma.”